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India

Across the way from Fatepuhr Sikri
itself is the Jama Masjid, an enormous mosque that blends elements of Islamic,
Persian, and Hindu design. It is still used today, and so we found ourselves
in the midst of a Friday afternoon crowd enjoying the sunny, pleasant weather.

One of the big draws is the fantastically
carved lattice screens on the tombs. Not only are they beautiful, but they
are also held in high regard by locals, who throng the site to tie pieces
of strings to the inner surfaces. And of course, there are people who are
very willing to sell them the very best in strings. This man was doing
a brisk business nearby, probably helped by the book of testimonials (with
pictures!) of those who had bought his strings and had their wishes granted.
Fantastic stuff!!

Apparently death is a really big draw
here, as we were astounded by the number of tombs that we saw. Inside the
mosque, alongside the courtyard, out between buildings - everywhere we
dead people. We didn't see much wailing and carrying on, so we guessed
that these were the long gone, but we never found out for sure.

Of course, there are more reasons for
the living to come here. We missed prayer time, but there were people all
around the mosque performing their rituals.

And as we left we received a blessing
from this man in green waiting outside. As we were planning on driving
on to our next stop, we figured we could use all the blessings we could
get!!